Phoenix Rising
by DarkAngel1227
Summary: What does fire do when fueled? It burns stronger than before. The Capitol has taken her home and the father of her child. Katniss Everdeen is about to show the world what damage a girl on fire can really do. Let the war begin. My take on book 3.
1. Confine

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Summary: What does fire do when fueled? It burns stronger than before. The Capitol has taken her home and the father of her child. Katniss Everdeen is about to show the world what damage a girl on fire can really do. My take on book 3.

Phoenix Rising

* * *

Chapter 1: Confine

District 12 is gone, my home is gone and it's my fault. I started a rebellion and the Capitol wanted to stop it by killing me and destroying my people. I make Gale leave, I didn't want to talk to him, there was only one person I wanted to talk to and he was gone, killed by the Capitol. I lie back down and rip the tubes out of my arms all these noises start going off and a nurse runs in the room.

"Katniss, you can't do that think about the baby" she tells me.

"There is no baby, we made it up for sympathy" I tell her not caring anymore. I told Peeta that I needed him and I do more than I thought I did. I needed his strong arms around me, I needed him to tell me it was going to be ok, I needed him to make me feel safe.

"Well then it was a good enough sympathy to fool your body because you are pregnant Katniss. That other monitor is for you baby" she says pointing to it.

I look to the side and finally notice that of the tons of monitors two are recording heartbeats. I look down at my stomach and my heart rate monitor starts beeping loudly as my breathing increases.

"I figured out you were lying for the cameras because there was no way either of you would know about the baby, you are only one week along" the nurse says.

After everything that had been going on I forgot all about that. There was the possibility I could be pregnant. Effie and Haymitch didn't want to coach us for our interviews they figured after the stunts we pulled we can handle ourselves. They gave us the day off and it was probably the happiest day I had in a long time.

_I practiced making knots and nets out vines and Peeta drew me. We were having a day long picnic on the roof. It was wonderful, no one bothered us._

_I lie with my head on Peeta's lap, making a crown of flowers while he fiddles with my hair claiming he's practicing his knots. After a while his hands go still. "What" I ask._

"_I wish I could live freeze this moment, right here, right now, and live in it forever," He says._

_Usually this is the sort of comment, the kind that hints of his undying love for me, makes me feel guilty and awful. But I feel so warm and relaxed and beyond worrying about the future I'll never have. I just let the words slip out "Okay" I can hear the smile in his voice. "Then you'll allow it?"_

"_I'll allow it" I say. _

_After that I dozed off and he woke and we watched out last sunset together. I wasn't lying when I said okay to his freezing that moment. I wanted to as well. I had never been so at peace anywhere but lying in his arms that day. No one came for us at dinner so we just stayed there until bedtime. _

_We quietly slipped down into my room without encountering anyone. _

_We were standing in my room and Peeta went to slide under the cover on his side of the bed, we had been slept in the same bed so many times we had chosen sides. I walked over to him and he turned around confused. _

"_Katniss, what are you doing?_

"_Freezing the moment" I say as I pulled Peeta close to me and kissed him. I felt that funny feeling again the one that sent warmth through my body. I wrapped my arms around his neck to deepen the kiss and he gently pushed his hand against my back. That warmth covered me from head to toe. I was the girl on fire and I didn't want it to stop, I wanted more. _

_Without thinking my hands slid down his shoulders and down his chest, I brought my hands underneath his shirt and felt his hardened abs. He was no longer the skinny sickly boy I found hidden in the mud during the last games. All that training had made him strong. I wanted to see so I lifted his shirt over his head and I didn't object when he lifted mine._

_He brought his hands around my waist and kissed me again. I barely remember how our pants and undergarments came off but suddenly he was standing in front of me naked. From my mother's work I had seen lots of naked men so it didn't bother me. But looking at Peeta standing there I could feel the heat rise in my cheeks; even with his prosthetic leg he was so beautiful. And I know that I want his body next to mine._

_We were kissing again until we fell backwards on the bed. Our bodies fit perfectly together as I looked into Peeta's stunning blue eyes as he was holding himself above me. With one hand he gently brushes a strand of hair from my face. He leans down to kiss me gently and I wrapped my arms around him pulled him inside me. At first there was a little pain but I was used to pain, after that my world exploded into colors and pleasure I had never seen or felt before. _

_The next morning before we had any real chance to think about what we had done; my prep team woke us up. They start crying and send Peeta out of my room, with all the flurry of hair, nails and makeup and I had no time to think about the fact that Peeta and I had made love last night. _

_I knew it love and not just sex, even though that was my first time. The emotions I felt for him were real and that scared me so I tried to push those thoughts away. If I wanted to keep the promise I made to myself, to keep him alive than I couldn't think like that._

_We do the interviews and Cinna had turned me into a Mockingjay and before I can process that Peeta tells Caesar that we are married and then drops the biggest bombshell on me and the world when he tells them I'm pregnant. _

_He didn't know then how true those words were going to be. After that we were thrown into the arena the first person I meet was Fennick who was to become my ally. When Peeta died for those few seconds and came back to life I was hysterical enough to scare Peeta. _

"_it's ok, it's just her hormones," says Fennick. "From the baby."_

"_No. It's not—" I get out, but am cut off by an even more hysterical round of sobbing when I realize that there is a real possibility that I could be pregnant, Peeta and I didn't use any protection. That makes me sob harder which I hope the people at home buy Fennick's excuse because I'm showing that I'm not very strong right now. I wipe away my tears and pull myself together, it doesn't matter if could be pregnant I wasn't going to make out of here Peeta was. _

And how wrong was I, I failed my own promise. Now I was alone, well not alone I think as I touch my stomach that feels a little more taut than usual. _Peeta_ I say to myself. He doesn't know that what he said had come true, we were having a baby. He had to know I couldn't let him die without knowing.

When I finally pull myself together I ask if the doctors if I can walk around, they agree but also have someone following in case I do something rash. I walk into the room where Haymitch, Finnick, Beetee, Gale and Plutarch Heavensbee are. They get quiet as I enter so I just take an empty seat.

"If this is the rebellion I started, then I have right to know what's going on" I tell them.

Heavensbee agree and starts telling me about what I missed.

He talks about how they are trying to save as many people as they can from all the districts except one and two who have sided with the Capitol. Then they talk about Peeta and Johana "There is a possibility that he's alive" Plutarch says as the room gets quiet as they look at me.

"Because they will want to use him to draw me out" I say.

"Yes" Haymitch says and we can't let that happen. You need to stay in District 13. If we can get him out we will."

I look at him and say nothing. I didn't believe him. He was never going to save Peeta it was only me they needed the face of the rebellion. Peeta was a loss they could deal with. But they were wrong. The mockingjay is nothing without its voice and Peeta was mine.

After everyone leaves I stay in the room looking out the window at the clouds we pass by. This was a different kind of hovercraft the ones we were on before never went this high in the air. I sigh and take out the pill bottle with the vitamins I need to take for the baby. I pour some out into my hand and pop them in my mouth. Suddenly the bottle is ripped from my hand; I hadn't noticed that Haymitch came back. I guess he figured I was trying to kill myself.

"Pre-natal vitamins he reads from the bottle. He looks at me. "You don't need to keep the act anymore" he tells me.

"It's not an act, Haymitch. I am pregnant" I tell him and for the first time since I met him his face registers shock as he looks at my stomach. I grab the bottle back from him and stick it back in my pocket.

Haymitch closes his eyes. "How, you two could barely stand to be near each other when we were back in District 12?"

"There's a lot you don't know about me and Peeta" I tell him. Peeta had spent the night in my bed a few times when I was too depressed or angry to tell him to leave or just needed him there to feel safe. Haymitch was right we didn't do anything then but hold each other tightly afraid to let go, afraid to wake up and find the other wasn't there, exactly how I feel now.

"That may be Katniss, but I find it hard to believe that you got married and conceived a child" he tells me but the bravado in his voice is gone, he was starting to believe that he threw me in the arena pregnant.

I let out a small laugh. "We're not married" I tell him. "And the baby was just beginning to exist when he told the world I was pregnant, but it does now for about a week" I say. "So I was pregnant but just as far along as the world believed"

"That night we left you alone…" he starts.

I don't really feel like discussing my sex life with him but I say. "Yes"

"What were you thinking!" he says louder having composed himself after the piece of news.

"I wasn't' thinking!" I scream back. "For the first time in a long time I was happy and I didn't want it to end" I say as tears start welling up in my eyes. "I thought it didn't matter, I thought I was going to die. I didn't know about your little plan to rescue me" I say with anger in my voice.

Haymitch can't look me in the eyes as he knows that was true. "I didn't think you were one of those girls that cared about dying a virgin" he says with menace in his voice.

I let out an exasperated sound. "I wasn't even thinking about that, I just wanted to be near him" I say. "But that doesn't matter now because it happened, we can't take it back. Peeta's gone and I'm pregnant that's where we are now." I tell him and walk out of the room as the tears start to flow. Haymitch doesn't follow me, I walk back into room and lie on the bed. I know it useless to try and sleep because I can't sleep without him next to me. So I just lie back and stare at the ceiling.

I hear a noise by the door and see Gale standing there. He walks over to me and takes my hand. "I know you are hurting and I know I can't imagine what you are going through. But it's not just your life you have to worry about anymore, you have to take care of yourself…for the…baby" He says choking out the word.

I close my eyes as I remember that he was watching tv and heard Peeta tell everyone that we were married and expecting. I look him into his eyes and see how hurt and angry he is that I didn't tell him but he still cares about me and wants me to be safe even though I'm carrying Peeta's child. He goes over and starts connecting the tube to me and we both look as the second heart monitor starts beeping.

I never wanted children for this very reason I didn't want them to grow up in this world where they might have to fight to the death before can really experience being a child. But as I look down at my stomach, the child growing inside of me is part of Peeta, maybe the only part I will ever have. Peeta doesn't even know about the baby and I so badly want to tell him. But I let him down I can't let down our child. I try to say something but Gale places his finger gently over my lips.

"Let me talk first" he says and I nod. "For a long time I wanted you but I was too afraid of how you'd react so I didn't tell you. But then I saw you on tv with…him during the first games, and I hated him because he got to hold you and kiss you. I know you told me it was fake that it was for the audience. But I didn't believe you, because I know you Katniss and I've never seen you look at anyone the way you look at him." He pauses and takes a breath. "I kissed you when you came back to see if you would look at me the same way, but you didn't because you never really saw me that way. I love you and he loves you but the difference is you love him back." He once again looks over at the monitor. "I have to accept that and move on even if that means helping you bring Peeta back." He tells me I look at him in shock. "He's the father of you baby, I'm not going to let your child grow up fatherless like we did not if Peeta's still out there"

I feel the tears in my eyes before they start to fall. I grab Gale's hand and squeeze it tightly. I know he's right; I love Peeta it just took me awhile to figure out what that meant.

The Capitol destroyed my home and took Peeta from me; I started this rebellion so I was going to end it too.

Tbc..


	2. Contain

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Summary: What does fire do when fueled? It burns stronger than before. The Capitol has taken her home and the father of her child. Katniss Everdeen is about to show the world what damage a girl on fire can really do. Let the war begin. My take on book 3.

Phoenix Rising

* * *

Chapter 2: Contain

I felt the hovercraft start to descend I watch as the ramp slowly lowered and a cloud of dust appears when it hits the ground. When it clears I see hundreds of hovercrafts and other vehicles I don't recognize. In front of us is a large building with what looks like tunnels with stairs leading to it. I had never seen a building quite like this one before it looked like it was made for vehicles in the air. I follow Hevensbee and Haymitch outside and see hundreds of people gathered around; it reminded me of the opening ceremonies of the games. Everyone goes silent when I appear, then slowly every single one of them presses three fingers from their left hand to their lips then out, our sign from District 12.

All these people could not have been from District 12 we didn't have that many people. Gale told me they got as many people out as they could but not all of them did, my warning had stuck with him as had is beating from the new peacekeeper. They knew that they would not leave us alone. He has also said word had gotten out to the other Districts and people had made their way over to District 13 and hovercrafts were on missions to bring family members that were left behind.

I spot Bonnie and Twill in front; they were the ones that had told me about District 13 and the Mockingjay. They must have found a way to spread the word that it really existed. My eyes scan the crowd and I see them, my mother and Prim. I run down the ramp throw my arms around them. Were all sobbing in each other's arms, I had never been so happy to see them. Still holding on tightly I see Finnnick searching the crowd. I know who he's looking for so I help him look for Annie. Finally I see her wavy brown hair; she's facing the other direction away from the hovercraft and staring into the sky.

"Finnick" I scream over the crowd, when he looks at me I point towards her. Relief spreads across his in face as he runs to her. I watch as he gently places his hand on her shoulder, she turns to look at him, she smiles briefly then looks back towards the sky. She was the only one to truly have Finnick's heart but was too far gone to know it. I see Gale hugging his mother and brothers and I let out the breath I didn't know I was holding, I was happy that were all save too. "Mrs. Mellark" I hear and it takes me a moment to realize they are talking to me. I keep forgetting that everyone thinks Peeta and I got married. I turn to face a young man with dark hair and blue eyes. He's wearing a plain black suit with a white shirt. It was kind of shocking to see these people, their dress was so different than anything I've seen, it was so normal.

"Mrs. Mellark, My name is Gaven and I will be your driver I'm here to take you and your family to your apartment"

I look to my mother who smiles and nods. "It's where we are living now" she tells me.

"It's so amazing Katniss" Prim says to me with excitement in her eyes. I smile back and tell Gaven to lead the way. I also tell him to call me Katniss, since Peeta and I weren't actually married it felt wrong to be using that name. But I couldn't tell them it wasn't true, maybe it would make them want to help me rescue him more if he thought he was my husband. We stop in front of a black vehicle that was bigger than anything I'd ever seen. It had four doors and space in the back to store items. I had seen cars in the Capitol but none of them looked like this. Gaven holds the door open and I climb in.

We drive on nicely paved streets with rich green grass on either side with all different kind of flowers and trees with long wide leaves like the ones they had in District 4. Other trees have different fruits growing on them some I've never even heard of, there were fields stretching on for miles growing grain and vegetables, meadows with even more flowers. In the distance I can hear the lapping of waves on a beach and when I look out I see two huge structures that Gaven told me are called castles. One is a deep brown and the other is white and blue both tower of the town along with a giant white ball.

When I ask Gaven gives the history of their new world. When the rebellion started a few were worried about the Capitols retaliation so they started building underground bunkers with food and supplies for people to go and when the bombs came that's where they went. So they did live underground for a while until their scientists sent up rovers to see if the air was breathable. Eventually it was. When the first few went up there they saw that the bombs had cleared away their home but unearthed another.

The ancient world that was thought to be lost when the hurricanes and earthquakes hit, the buildings we see now belonged to them. The world of our ancestors, they found a library with maps and blue prints of what the city looked like and started to reconstruct the structures to build a new life. They figured the Capitol had thought them long dead but just in case they built the wall that surrounded them.

A wall that I hadn't noticed until he said something then I saw the large thick wall that surrounded the perimeter of the land. A wall that looked impossible to scale.

They were free from the Capitols influence and life got better, they all worked together to rebuild a new life without the Capitol's influence. At one point a hovercraft flew over here to see what had happened to them and they shot it down. District 13 was a land of scientist, the smartest in the world. They were developing new ways to travel and new weapons to use against the Capitol before they tried to destroy them. But that helped us more than they could ever imagine by unearthing the world that came before they gave our scientist access to ever more data.

As we drove by a bridge Gaven tells me that across that body of water is where their top scientists are working on things that have the Capitol scared. "Our hovercrafts go higher and faster and our weapons are more dangerous." he tells me.

I lean my head against the window and just stare out watching the beautiful houses and buildings pass by me. This world looked like a dream, a dream that most of the districts of Panem had been wishing for. We finally pull up to tall building and Gaven gets out and opens the door. I follow my mother and Prim to the elevator and we ride up a long way up. The doors finally open and we enter a hallway with only four doors. My mother goes to one and opens it.

When I walk inside I'm amazed by its size, it was bigger than our entire house but it fit on part of a floor of a tall building. I go to the wide panoramic window and can see all of district 13, the two castles, the white ball and tons of other large building and structures. This place was beautiful. We eat a dinner of fresh fish and clams caught from the ocean just outside our window and potatoes sliced in to thick sticks and then fried in oil. For dessert they have cakes with the fresh fruit picked from the orchards. This was the kind of feast I've only had the Capitol.

After dinner Prim tells me all about the hospital her and my mother work at. She tells me about the medicines and the machines they have to heal people. She tells me it's so big they could treat thousands of people and my mother laughs and says it more like hundreds but it is an amazing place. I had never seen my mother so at peace, after my father was killed she treated into a world of despair and I was left to pick up the pieces. But here in this new place like everyone else they felt free. I knew it couldn't last the rebellion was just beginning and by taking us all in District 13 just made themselves the number one target. But I'd let them have their happiness for as long as could because I knew in a crisis my mother would come through, if that hospital was as good as they both said was then they would be needed there when the war began.

I take a shower and crawl into the huge bed in my room. I look out the window and can hear the city finishing up their day below me.

I wake up in a cold sweat, breathing heavily the nightmare still running through my mind. I saw Peeta and I was running to him, he opens his mouth to say something but no sound comes out, they took his tongue he was an Avox. Tears were streaming down his face and he kept yelling with silence. They couldn't take Peeta's voice; I needed that voice it's what kept me going in the games. I needed to hear his words again any words so I run faster thinking that will help but I seem to be stuck in slow motion I try to tell him I love him but I can't talk either, I feel inside my mouth and realize my tongue is gone too. But maybe it always was since I could never tell him how I really felt about him, I was too afraid and now it was too late. I see him opening and closing his mouth with fear in his eyes as he's pointing at something behind me. I finally turn around to see one the beast that was chasing us in the first games we were in but this one had Cinna's eyes, he was wearing the outfit we wore in the first opening ceremonies the one that made him look like he was on fire, he was barreling towards me growling and swatting his huge claws. I could do nothing but stand there when the beast jumps on top of me I look up I no longer see Cinna I see Peeta's blue eyes staring back at me with so much anger and hatred in them.

I bolt upright in my bed, gasping for air as the tears wreck through my body. I don't know if I made it sound no one comes running so I suppose I didn't. I try to calm down and catch my breath I run to the bathroom that I have inside my new room. I splash water on my face but the image of Peeta as the beast won't go away. The guilt I have only intensifies, I failed him and the Capitol could be turning him into an Avox or a beast or anything worse they could think off. Tears are streaming down my face.

I can't be in here any longer I throw on some clothes and ride the elevator down. I walk past the guard at the door who just smiles and nods as he holds the door open for me. He doesn't ask any questions or try to follow me. It was different here than anywhere else. I could walk around freely without worrying about who's watching me. This is the place where children could grow up normally without fear of fighting to the death or losing loved one to some stupid game the Capitol used for entertainment. I walk out into the darkness of the early morning.

As I'm walking my stomach growls I hadn't thought to bring food, that wasn't like me. I hadn't even realized how long I had been walking or what time I had left. I was just wandering around aimlessly so food wasn't on the top of my mind. The sky was just starting to brighten as the sun rose slowly but it was still dark enough that not many people were out.

A wonderful smell passes my sense and I turn to look and a few feet in front of me is a bakery. I feel tears starting to form in my eyes as I looked in the store, Peeta I whisper. This store was different than Peeta's it was bigger and better lit. This one had a large window and a glass door so you could see inside the whole shop, the ovens and the different breads hanging or lying on shelves. I looked around and see the bread with greenish tint from District 4, the flat hard bread that Bonnie and Twill showed me from District 8 and so many others including the one from District 12. _But how?_ They couldn't know what we all had they were living their lives in secret. I placed my hand on stomach and closed my eyes as I took in the smells. I wanted some but I didn't know how to get some, I didn't have anything to trade and I didn't know how things worked here. And it was also the middle of the night.

With my eyes still closed I felt movement and I opened them and turned and there in the doorway stood Peeta's mother. She looked at me with the same stern look she always she gave me but then it softened. At first I thought it was a trick of the lighting that came through the door but she kept staring at me. Her hands were behind her back as she leaned her shoulder against the doorframe. Then her eyes lowered to my stomach where I still had my hand. We stood there neither of saying a word staring at each other.

"Thank you" she says breaking the silence.

I look at her and confused. She barely spoke to me, mostly to tell me to get away from the garbage. I knew she hated me because of my mother, she believed her husband was still in love with my mother but couldn't have her. She hated that her son was falling down the same path.

"Thank you for keeping him safe" she says.

This was strange; Peeta's mother was talking to me nicely. I looked around for the baker but couldn't see him inside the shop. _Did he make it? _He had to have; Peeta couldn't lose his father too and it would be harder to talk to his mother without him.

"You gave him a reason to survive, he wanted to protect you" She continues "…and you protected him kept him safe"

I was too shocked to say anything. I've barely said two words to Peeta's mother she always did her best to ignore me and now she went out of her way to talk to me to tell me this.

"And I know if he's out there he's fighting just as hard to get back to you." She says. I start to shake my head, Peeta wanted me safe and if he thinks I am safe then he will have kept his promise. I'm the one that broke mine.

She shakes her head. "No, it's in his blood…" she pauses and takes a breath "to be stubborn like that. He will continue to fight for you like everyone else, Katniss"

It was so weird to hear my name leave Peeta's mother lips. I didn't care what people thought but it hurt me that Peeta's mother didn't like me even before I got to know him. I knew deep down that Peeta and I had always shared a connection I tried to ignore it but I couldn't, he was always the boy with the bread and I never forgot that or him. I did notice him as we got older and I was interested in what he was doing even though we never talked he was on my mind.

"You have awoken something that was inside of us all, you have showed us what we are capable of. You have given us a reason to hope. "

I look at Mrs. Mellark. _Hope_ that was what Peeta gave to me when I thought I had lost it. I gave everyone else hope but Peeta gave that to me. Hearing her say those things was both frightening and exhilarating. I didn't know how I did that or why. I thought I was just being myself. But I suppose myself was always rebellious, going underneath the fence to hunt on illegal land, trading in the black market and with the peace makers, shooting an arrow at the game makers when they were ignoring me. I wanted to be seen, I wanted them to know I was there. I stared a rebellion because that's what was in me.

When I look back at her she's holding out a loaf of bread, the kind with the melted cheese that Peeta knew I loved. I'm still in shock over our conversation that I just stand there. She holds it out further and I hesitantly take it.

"I don't want my grandchild to starve" she tells me now knowing that we could never go back to our usually indifferent manner, she may not like that I'm the one her son chose but we had an understanding that we would both do anything to protect to Peeta and we were now connected forever now through the child growing inside of me.

As I walk back towards my new home I think about the baby. I promised myself I'd never have children and now I'm going to be a mother at 17. _What was I thinking when I slept with Peeta?_ That day was the happiest most relaxed day I had ever had and _I_ wanted him, I needed to be closer to him and I had no idea what came over me when I started removing his clothes. I barely even thought about sex but in that moment it felt right. And maybe it was like that for all the other things I've done, in the moment it felt like the right thing to do. Shoot the gamemakers and show the poison berries to the Capitol before bringing them to my mouth to ruin their games. Maybe I really was the girl on fire I could barely control myself.

Now I knew the right thing to do was stop this madness that Capitol created, stop the fear they had installed us for so long, stop the deaths used for their entertainment. All lose lost in the 75 hunger games would not be pointless they would be used to make a point.

We were going to show them that they could no longer contain the fire.

Tbc…


End file.
